1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

second-guessing

verb

present participle of second-guess
1
as in outguessing

Related Words

Relevance
2
as in reasoning

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for second-guessing
  1. balking
  2. reasoning
  3. overreaching
  4. analyzing
  5. outmaneuvering
  6. reviewing
  7. outsmarting
  8. exploring
Verb
  • Several budget hawks and conservative economists are already balking at the idea – a bad sign when just a few Republicans in either chamber can, until the voting margins change, tank pretty much any measure.
    — Zachary Schermele, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2026
  • Many residents are balking at that timing and at Ryan’s lawsuit against Killingly’s wetlands board for rejecting the first version of the plan on July 6.
    — Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of balking
Verb
  • Organizations have compared benchmark scores, reasoning capabilities and response quality to determine which AI model is smartest.
    — Samir Dutta, Forbes.com, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Backwards reasoning like this reminds me of Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign 70 years ago.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of reasoning
Verb
  • While most judges have categorized such requests as overreaching or for an improper purpose, two out of three judges on the panel ruled that there was nothing out of line about the QueerDoc request.
    — Theresa Gaffney, STAT, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Republican lawmakers disagree, saying that the approval is just another example of an overreaching government.
    — Tom Wait, CBS News, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of overreaching
Verb
  • Because the data center boom is so new, there has not yet been a comprehensive study analyzing how much more electricity and hence pollution is being generated to power them.
    — Anna Zarra Aldrich, Hartford Courant, 25 Sep. 2026
  • It's generated by analyzing size, industry and payment history of your business.
    — Jasmin Suknanan, CNBC, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of analyzing
Verb
  • The characters' abilities are built around outmaneuvering, not outgunning.
    — Brian Mazique, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2026
  • May built one of the most dominant teams in Big Ten history by outmaneuvering his peers in the transfer portal.
    — Austin Meek, New York Times, 30 June 2026
Definition of outmaneuvering
Verb
  • Some simple ways to do this include improving your credit utilization ratio, either by paying down existing debt or increasing available credit, and reviewing your credit report for any mistakes.
    — Becca Stanek, TheWeek, 23 Sep. 2026
  • After reviewing the work, Feng Zhang, a CRISPR genome-editing pioneer and professor at MIT and the Broad Institute, said the finding warrants further investigation.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of reviewing
Verb
  • The problem, according to Hinton, is that humans will no longer be able to rely on outsmarting super-intelligent AI models.
    — Matt Egan, CNN Money, 6 Aug. 2026
  • The Fan, the season-long unsub obsessed with one-upping and outsmarting his idol.
    — Joyce Eng, Entertainment Weekly, 23 July 2026
Definition of outsmarting
Verb
  • Suzhou MoCA has kicked off operations with an exhibition featuring works by Pablo Picasso that influenced artists across Europe, as well as a show curated by BIG exploring how diverse materials shape the studio's approach to structural design.
    — Abhimanyu Ghoshal, New Atlas, 21 Sep. 2026
  • After an incredible day exploring Bimota’s unique vision for the KB998 Rimini at Laguna Seca, trying to comprehend how well the Elite version rides on track takes some fantastic leaps of imagination.
    — Michael Van Runkle, Robb Report, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of exploring
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

second-guesses
second-guessing
secondhand
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Second-guessing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/second-guessing. Accessed 28 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of fungible

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of the words cracker fly and sale arranged in a triangle with the word fire in the middle
Triple Play Quiz Find the word that pairs with each of the three g...
See All